1 week Ago By Nets Wire
NEW YORK -- The Brooklyn Nets headed into Tuesday's game against the New Orleans Pelicans hoping to end a two-game losing streak to act as a morale booster with the season coming to an end. However, breaking news hit the NBA airwaves prior to the game as the Denver Nuggets fired head coach Michael Malone, leading to Fernandez reacting to one of his mentors being surprisingly fired weeks before the start of the playoffs."The timing, it's tough with three games to go and in the position they are to play for everything.
Super-accomplished coach, a person that means a lot to me in my career. I would not be here without him," Fernandez said of Malone prior to Tuesday's matchup against the Pelicans. Denver reportedly fired Malone on Tuesday with just three games left on the team's schedule, along with general manager Calvin Booth being sent out the door.
"I love our owner (Joe Tsai). I love my GM (Sean Marks), the people that I work for, and I'm only a positive person," Fernandez said when asked if the firings of Malone and Memphis Grizzlies head coach Taylor Jenkins make him question the state of coaching in the NBA. "I'm going to come into work every day thinking that I'm going to be here for 15 years, and whenever I want to go back to Spain and retire, that's how I feel.
I'm going to show up to work every day."Fernandez spent six seasons as an assistant coach under Malone and the Nuggets from 2016 to 2022, during which time Denver made it to the playoffs in four of those six seasons, including an appearance in the Western Conference Finals during the 2019-20 season. Fernandez wasn't the only one to react to the Malone firing as Pelicans head coach Willie Green gave his take on Malone and what the firing means for the NBA coaching profession.
"Yes, it does. I'm appreciative, but, at the same time, it's a very weird landscape for coaching in the NBA, in my opinion," Green explained. "All the guys that you mentioned, including Mike Malone, they've won.
They've won at a high level. You try to do what you can and try to help the team the best way you can from your position, but it definitely leaves some questions."What makes it interesting to get reactions from Fernandez and Green is the fact that both are still relatively new in terms of being head-coaches in the league.
Fernandez is in his first year coaching the Nets while Green has been the head coach for New Orleans since the 2021-22 season, but it seems that both understand how the business goes and are just approaching their jobs the best they can until their time comes.The Denver Nuggets have fired coach Michael Malone and GM Calvin Booth, sources confirm. ESPN first.
Malone leaves as a 2023 NBA champion and the winningest coach in franchise history. David Adelman is expected to be named interim coach with Denver 47-32 and fourth in the West. pic.
twitter.com/6ww72cBfkq— Michael Scotto (@MikeAScotto) April 8, 2025This article originally appeared on Nets Wire: Nets' Jordi Fernandez, Pels' Willie Green react to Mike Malone firing.
